tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29250072495474021202018-11-16T11:25:47.064-08:00 David Nybakke, OFS - Spiritual Direction... a process to help clear the debris and noise of our lives as we undergo God. We hope to listen to the extraordinarily peaceful powerful meaning of Love from God who wants to speak to us.David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-75590001398922803522018-11-07T11:33:00.000-08:002018-11-16T11:25:47.037-08:00Reflections of poverty by Bishop Camisasca<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">"Poverty is born from the discovery that I am Another's: I exist because I am loved in an individual way by Another.... I am the work of Another, nothing is mine, because everything is given to me by HIM." </span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">&nbsp;"Poverty cannot exist unless it is fed by hope, that is to say, by the certainty that we have been given what really counts in life and that no one can take that away from us.... &nbsp;Poverty is freedom from things, and awareness that it is God who fulfills our desires."&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Poverty, understood as the use of things according to their true purpose, is a virtue for building up, a virtue animated by the certainty that God’s promises are being fulfilled. Unless you are certain of having already received everything, in fact, you cannot have the freedom to use what you hold in your hands according to its ultimate purpose. You will be out for your own safety, you will tighten your grip on things, and so you will set the stage for your own destruction.”</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“To be poor, then, is to use each thing according to its ultimate end, placing the expectation of one’s good, not in the possession of this or that thing, but in the realization of the Kingdom of God. When we do that, we use, appreciate, and love each thing without turning it into an idol. When they become idols, persons and things cease to be ours: they are like objects that irreparably break to pieces in our hands. In a correct relationship with things and with other people, we do not refuse them the esteem that is their due – for example, you do not deny the value of a person if you are friends with him. At the same time, however, one does not expect from them the fulfillment of one’s own life. It is in the Kingdom of God that things and persons find their proper place….”</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Through this stripping, however, an endless joy comes to birth. For when we live poverty, we discover that we are lacking nothing, since everything is given to us…</span><span style="background: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">.”</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“We are already in the definitive hour, the hour in which, after the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus, we human beings possess everything, but in a new way.”&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: &quot;arial&quot;; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Source: Bishop Massimo Camisasca, Magnificat from his book, <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Challenge-Fatherhood-Massimo-Camisasca/dp/0982356137/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_g5171374337?_encoding=UTF8&amp;%2AVersion%2A=1&amp;%2Aentries%2A=0&amp;ie=UTF8">The Challenge of Fatherhood: </a></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: &quot;arial&quot;; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="&quot;Poverty is born from the discovery that I am Another's: I exist because I am loved in an individual way by Another.... I am the work of Another, nothing is mine, because everything is given to me by HIM.&quot; &quot;Poverty cannot exist unless it is fed by hope, that is to say, by the certainty that we have been given what really counts in life and that no one can take that away from us.... Poverty is freedom from things, and awareness that it is God who fulfills our desires.&quot; “Poverty, understood as the use of things according to their true purpose, is a virtue for building up, a virtue animated by the certainty that God’s promises are being fulfilled. Unless you are certain of having already received everything, in fact, you cannot have the freedom to use what you hold in your hands according to its ultimate purpose. You will be out for your own safety, you will tighten your grip on things, and so you will set the stage for your own destruction.” “To be poor, then, is to use each things according to its ultimate end, placing the expectation of one’s good, not in the possession of this or that thing, but in the realization of the Kingdom of God. When we do that, we use, appreciate, and love each thing without turning it into an idol. When they become idols, persons and things cease to be ours: they are like objects that irreparably break to pieces in our hands. In a correct relationship with things and with other people, we do not refuse them the esteem that is their due – for example, you do not deny the value of a person if you are friends with him. At the same time, however, one does not expect from them the fulfillment of one’s own life. It is in the Kingdom of God that things and persons find their proper place….” “Through this stripping, however, an endless joy comes to birth. For when we live poverty, we discover that we are lacking nothing, since everything is given to us….” “We are already in the definitive hour, the hour in which, after the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus, we human being possess everything, but in a new way.” Source: Bishop Massimo Camisasca, Magnificat from his book, The Challenge of Fatherhood: " border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="313" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MiNmB9p19HI/W-M7McqOw5I/AAAAAAAACmI/nQn6XmKxmfMJF_l0y-csZiWi17_Qj7U9wCLcBGAs/s320/Challenge%2Bof%2BFatherhood.jpg" width="200" /></div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-75455772688534242882018-10-30T13:22:00.000-07:002018-10-30T13:22:52.197-07:00Collateral Beauty - What is truth, you ask? No idle questions answered here!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kHaNaZyOYOs/W9ircb6-PLI/AAAAAAAAClk/hd66sVte8EEI4O8-4KUKrC4uog_DJVORQCEwYBhgL/s1600/collateral_beauty_uber_3_theatrical_4320x1080_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="1600" height="160" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kHaNaZyOYOs/W9ircb6-PLI/AAAAAAAAClk/hd66sVte8EEI4O8-4KUKrC4uog_DJVORQCEwYBhgL/s640/collateral_beauty_uber_3_theatrical_4320x1080_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />When I saw the movie "Collateral Beauty" nearly 2 years ago it jumped right up into my list of favorites. A devastating story being told by someone hit hard by life and refusing platitudes and the conventional quick fix answers from friends, society, church and religions.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w1tfLWxcEzw/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w1tfLWxcEzw?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Throughout the movie I found instances where we are invited to enter into the drama of life - the drama of suffering, which, when you think about it, is what we do as we participate in the mass of the passion of Christ each Sunday at church.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The post:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mbird.com/2017/04/the-beautiful-truth-of-collateral-beauty/#comments"><span style="font-size: large;">"<i>The Beautiful Truth of Collateral Beauty</i>"</span></a> from Jeff Hual at Mockingbird peels away all the cloudiness, distortions and relativism of the world as it says:&nbsp;</div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">...&nbsp;</span><em style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #090909; font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Collateral Beauty&nbsp;</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">goes&nbsp;straight to the heart of the matter, diagnosing the human condition.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The movie begins with Will Smith portraying an advertising executive named Howard, a guru in his field, who is addressing his associates. Howard asks the question that is most likely at the heart of our burning questions today:</span></blockquote><blockquote style="background: url(&quot;images/bq.png&quot;) 20px 0px no-repeat rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 15px 0px 10px 65px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-top: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #444444;">What is your why? Why did you even get out of the bed this morning? Why did you eat what you ate? Why did you wear what you wore? Why did you come here? We’re here to connect, so how are we supposed to do that?</span></div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-top: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #444444;">Love, time, death. These three abstractions connect every single human being on earth, everything that we covet, everything that we fear not having, everything that we ultimately end up buying, is because, at the end of the day, we long for love, we wish we had more time, and we fear death. Love, time, death. Let’s begin there.</span></div></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I don’t know if the writer of these words is a Christian, but I can think of no better description of the human condition. In the absence of Christ, humanity is forever trapped in an insoluble situation. We live always with the fear of death; we can’t do a single thing to gain more time; and real love can be ephemeral, elusive. So we go to church on Good Friday seeking an answer to our insoluble problem, one that rings true, and brings comfort into our situation.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #090909; font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">&nbsp;</span></blockquote>Jeff goes on in the review to explain the supernatural turn of the movie when Christ through Love, Time and Death, in the form of three actual people, enter into the drama of Howard's life. He goes on to challenge each of us to delve deeper in our faith by asking those most vital and hard pressing questions that only come to us when we are struck down by life and find out at that moment that the only way out is through God's love. And for me, I throw the challenge out, if we are not the one struck down, but rather the one nearby, we are commissioned by way of our baptism, to be present with them in that suffering so they can feel that they are not alone and perhaps feel the truth of the situation which is always, always, always that Christ is in it with them.David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-60951790860321364252018-05-17T06:15:00.002-07:002018-05-17T06:16:07.654-07:00Real Contact - Simone Weil<span style="font-size: large;">Simone Weil from Awaiting God</span><br /><br /><div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: palatino, &quot;times new roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 1.82em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18.2px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In my contemplations on the insoluble problem of God, I did not anticipate the possibility of real contact, person-to-person, here below, between a human and God. I had vaguely heard tell of things of this kind, but I never believed them. … Moreover, in Christ’s sudden possession of me, neither my senses nor my imagination had any part. Through my suffering I only felt the presence of a love analogous to that which one reads in the smile of a beloved face.</em></div><div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: palatino, &quot;times new roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 1.82em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18.2px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I had never read any of the mystics, because I had never felt called to read them. In reading, as in other things, I always attempt practical obedience. There is nothing more favourable to intellectual progress, for as far as possible I do not read anything except that for which I am hungry in the moment, when I am hungry for it, and then I do not read, … I eat. God mercifully prevented me from reading the mystics, so that it would be evident to me that I had not fabricated this absolutely unexpected contact.</em></div><div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: palatino, &quot;times new roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 1.82em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18.2px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yet I still half refused, not my love, but my intelligence. For it seemed certain, and I believe it still today, that we can never wrestle God too much if we do so out of pure concern for the truth. Christ loves that we prefer the truth to him, because before being the Christ, he is the Truth. If someone takes a detour from him to go towards the truth, they will not go a long way without falling into his arms.</em></div><br />David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-10574347823677886702018-03-28T09:40:00.002-07:002018-03-28T09:40:48.126-07:00Catholic Spirit Radio Interview on Spiritual Direction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-F6RNv9qX5jo/WrvEMXuUdZI/AAAAAAAAChc/JTNsclI55Dsrl0ee7jbLCF57qUh_9FImQCLcBGAs/s1600/Spirit%2BRadio_banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="1600" height="227" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-F6RNv9qX5jo/WrvEMXuUdZI/AAAAAAAAChc/JTNsclI55Dsrl0ee7jbLCF57qUh_9FImQCLcBGAs/s640/Spirit%2BRadio_banner.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Catholic Conversations hosted by Jason Bramley of Catholic Spirit Radio interviews Tina Boettcher, Pam Smith &amp; David Nybakke about Spiritual Direction.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><h2><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Link <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://catholicspiritradio.podbean.com/e/jason-talks-with-david-nybakke-pam-smith-tina-boettcher-about-spiritual-direction/">here</a></span></span></h2>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-73929599771655616932018-03-09T06:33:00.000-08:002018-03-09T07:12:00.686-08:00Finding the cushion of calm - Jesus Calling<h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="background-color: white; font-family: &quot;Covered By Your Grace&quot;; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">Jesus Calling~ March 9th</h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; font-family: &quot;Century Gothic&quot;, Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" style="background-color: white; font-family: &quot;Century Gothic&quot;, Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 590px;">Rest in My Radiant Presence.&nbsp; The world around you seems to spin faster and faster, till everything is a blur.&nbsp; Yet there is a cushion of calm at the center of your life, where you live in union with Me.&nbsp; Return to this soothing Center as often as you can, for this is where you are energized: filled with My Love, Joy, and Peace.<br /><br />The world is a needy place; do not go there for sustenance.&nbsp; Instead, come to Me.&nbsp; Learn to depend on Me alone, and your weakness will become saturated with My Power.&nbsp; When you find your completeness in Me, you can help other people without using them to meet your own needs.&nbsp; Live in the Light of My Presence, and your light will shine brightly into the lives of others.<br /><br /><div align="center"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ~Galatians 5:22</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color: #4f81bd;">No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. ~1 John 4:12</span></div>My Thoughts:<br />We all need a 'power source' as we are not autonomous beings. This world tells us the lie, the myth, that we are individual and independent! Try your best, when things are going crazy, and you will drain others by using them to meet your own needs. But to seek Him, in that cushion of calm at your center, provides all your needs and allows you to be a strength for others - not on your power only, but in union with His!!</div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-1781365150402382682018-02-15T06:13:00.000-08:002018-02-15T10:48:22.746-08:00Eucharist as Your Heartbeat - Reflection by Susan Kaye<div class="MsoNormal"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;">I remember the time I first experienced the Eucharist as Your Heartbeat. Communion becomes a still space. Even with all its movement, Communion always becomes a still space.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;">Eyes are closed – Heads are bowed – the guy beside me kneels - From the right, comes a song - a song that “I am here;” that “I am near.” And also from the right the hint of a breeze stirred by movement carried forward by footsteps. And on the left – Like a steady drumbeat</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;">like a heartbeat</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</span>Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;">that draws us so close we touch it</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span>Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;">and taste it</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;">Not just me – but we - </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;">There is a pause in the beat -- I look up. The Priest is blessing a baby and young child.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;">And, yes, Jesus becomes Lord and Savior again for me this night and again and again in every Eucharist.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Body of Christ</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;">Someone once told me: Catholic Churches – they are all the same. I said: How can they all be the same? &nbsp;When you moved here – the new parish – isn’t it different?</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;&quot;comic sans ms&quot;&quot;,serif;">She said: Oh sure. &nbsp;Different building. &nbsp;Different people. &nbsp;Different Priest. &nbsp;But once you find Christ in the Eucharist, it is all the same. &nbsp;It is good – but all the same.</span></div></div></div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-21088634266007786592018-02-09T06:14:00.001-08:002018-02-09T09:31:26.058-08:00“Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened” <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8327272727272728; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 6pt;"><br /><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><u><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">“Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened” </span></u></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">The Suscipe (Latin for "take"), a radical prayer from St Ignatius, is not found in any of the four weeks of the Spiritual Exercises, but rather was included by Ignatius as additional material in regards to the “contemplation for attaining love” at the end of the Exercises. In this section, Ignatius speaks of the immeasurable love of God that is bestowed upon all of creation, and then asks what he might offer to such a loving God:</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">'<b><i>Take Lord and receive all my liberty. Take my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. Whatsoever I have or hold, You have given me; I give it all back to You and surrender it wholly to be governed by your will. Give me only your love and your grace, and I am rich enough and ask for nothing more.' (Spiritual Exercises, #234)</i></b></span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aRx_e-SvQgc/Wn3Lx5rXviI/AAAAAAAACfk/i7l2McXT-3oZSoqDLUEVk0URNTXSFPQAQCLcBGAs/s1600/MKP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aRx_e-SvQgc/Wn3Lx5rXviI/AAAAAAAACfk/i7l2McXT-3oZSoqDLUEVk0URNTXSFPQAQCLcBGAs/s320/MKP.jpg" width="213" /></a><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Meditations-Adrienne-Von-Speyr/dp/1586177761"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Be Opened - </i>a meditation from Adrienne von Speyr</a></span></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened” Jesus </span></i><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">looks up to the Father. It is as if he always wants to work a mira­cle in the Trinity, never alone. The Father and the Spirit are in heaven. And he, even as a man in the world, al­ways has access to heaven.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">Even more: he draws heaven nearer in order not to act alone, to be confirmed, to allow for participation in what he will do. This divine, mutual sharing with an­other is what, throughout his whole life, the Lord gives to us. For a whole context is there: the deaf-mute who lets himself passively be led there, those who are active and bring him, and lastly those watching, who will write it down. The Lord is there, who is God and man; and heaven is there. A whole, immense sharing, then, in which each performs what is his to perform, without our being able to know exactly what belongs to whom.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">That is Christian, already a kind of Eucharistic mira­cle. The Lord gives his body because he is on earth; he gives his bodily touch. He does not give only his divine power to work miracles. And he does not refuse peo­ple’s help. But with his gaze toward heaven, he seeks the nearness of the Father and the Spirit and the whole of heaven. Only then, after this wordless prayer—for every glance up to heaven is a prayer for the Son—he sighs. He sighs because he is tired, because power is going out of him again. He sighs in obedience. And then he speaks the word <i>Ephphatha. </i>The man’s ears and mouth are to open. They are to open primarily in a supernatural sense, which secondarily draws the earthly sense after it. They are to open so that they can receive faith, but also so that they can perceive and speak the audible words of faith.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;"><i><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">ADRIENNE VON SPEYR<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>– &nbsp;(†1967) was a Swiss physician, a mystical writer, and a stigmatist.</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2013/11/an-introduction-to-adrienne-von-speyr"><span style="background: #fcfcfc; color: #1155cc; font-family: &quot;georgia&quot; , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">For von Speyr, the Son’s perfect embodiment of the Suscipe reveals </span></a></span><span style="background: #fcfcfc; color: #4d4e4e; font-family: &quot;georgia&quot; , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">to the world the love of the Father and the Trinitarian relationships of complete openness and reciprocal love. Using the Suscipe rather than philosophical categories, she describes the unity and distinctions of the Persons of the Trinity with analogies of love and sacramental marriage that maintain a unity that cannot be severed by time and distance. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">Reflection:</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">Self-identity is a big deal in our society. Knowing who we are enables us to journey forward through life with confidence, a sense of direction and purpose, an accurate assessment of our capabilities as well as weaknesses. Inevitably though, confidence wains. Our struggle with confidence is due by the fact that we hold onto a myth - a myth that says we are autonomous and individual. In the gos­pel, the question Jesus addresses to his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” was not about his seeking his own self-awareness. It was a question put to the disciples that would <i><b>reveal to them more deeply who he was to them</b></i> in relation to one another and themselves. Jesus opens up for them that 1) their ‘self’ is structured in and through relationships with others, 2) this relationship is always unstable and wavering when the Transcendent Other is not present and 3) 'confidence' is obtained only through Him as member of the Trinity. One obtains a constituted ‘self’ substantiated with authority and confidence when one is open to receiving as a gift their liberty, memory, understanding and will from the Lord. You can see how truly radical the Suscipe prayer is from St Ignatius.</span><br /><span style="background: white; color: #555555; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">'</span><b style="color: #252525; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><i>Take Lord and receive all my liberty. Take my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. Whatsoever I have or hold, You have given me; I give it all back to You and surrender it wholly to be governed by your will. Give me only your love and your grace, and I am rich enough and ask for nothing more.' (Spiritual Exercises, #234)</i></b></div></div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-40293208669361255162018-01-18T20:54:00.001-08:002018-01-18T21:00:44.800-08:00Touching the spot within us that transcends the human<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BK9oCX5lBLQ/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BK9oCX5lBLQ?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;">We went to see a very interesting presentation on the campus of IWU by&nbsp;<span style="letter-spacing: 0.08px; word-spacing: 0.4px;">Tim Ternes, director of the St John's Bible program at St. John’s. You can read about this project and how it came to the campus <a href="http://wglt.org/post/historic-st-johns-bible-comes-illinois-wesleyan#stream/0">HERE</a>.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.08px; word-spacing: 0.4px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.08px; word-spacing: 0.4px;">Part of the presentation was this video on the artist and originator of the project, Donald Jackson. His work and his comments are worthy of much reflection. One of the quotes that struck me when I first heard it was this:</span></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.08px; word-spacing: 0.4px;">... so when they open a page of a Bible like this they take in their breath, not because they have been impressed by the cleverness of it or by the detail of it or even the shiny gold. But because there is something there that they already knew, it's all like meeting somebody that they have met before at some point. And that is in a sense, the kind of feeling that the artist reaches to.</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.08px; word-spacing: 0.4px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.08px; word-spacing: 0.4px;">This quote from Jackson brought back memories of a&nbsp;</span>quote from Helen Keller’s autobiography about her breakthrough to language:&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;">We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly and then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then, that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living word awakened my soul, giving it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;">Author Jeremiah Alberg writes about Keller's breakthrough and how she describes it:</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;">This is Helen Keller’s breakthrough to language,... Yet, if we listen to her, it was not a breakthrough to something completely new. Instead, it was the “consciousness as of something forgotten,” the “thrill of returning thought.”</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;">As Jackson describes the awesomeness one experiences creating and witnessing real beauty, it is as if one is sensing something that they've experienced before or met before: just as Keller describes the breakthrough to the most powerful of human experiences, language as something forgotten with a thrill of returning thought.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;">There is, within each of us, that connection to a larger experience, ... there is something greater here ... there is something greater here than our words can describe.</span>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-29695546050201406082017-12-01T11:58:00.000-08:002017-12-01T11:58:24.426-08:00Jesus Calling on God's Love and Presence<h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 36px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-break: normal;">Jesus Calling, November 29</h1><img alt="Jesus Calling, November 29" class="img-rounded pull-right lmargin bmargin" src="https://www.midlandscbd.com/uploads/news-pictures/1100--blog-post-image-20170519111637.jpg" style="border-radius: 6px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; float: right; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; height: auto; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-left: 10px; max-width: 50%; position: relative; vertical-align: middle;" title="Jesus Calling, November 29" /><br /><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">INSPIRATION -&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?event=AFF&amp;p=1179934&amp;item_no=451884" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #4167b0; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Jesus Calling</span></a></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">by Sarah Young</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">Let Me infuse My Peace into your innermost being. As you sit quietly in the Light of My Presence, you can sense Peace growing within you. This is not something that you accomplish through self-discipline and willpower; it is opening yourself to receive My blessing.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">In this age of independence, people find it hard to acknowledge their neediness. However, I have taken you along a path that has highlighted your need for Me: placing you in situations where your strengths were irrelevant and your weaknesses were glaringly evident.&nbsp;</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">Through the aridity of those desert marches, I have drawn you closer and closer to Myself. You have discovered flowers of Peace blossoming in the most desolate places. You have learned to thank Me for hard times and difficult journeys, trusting that through them I accomplish My best work.&nbsp;</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">You have realized that needing Me is the key to knowing Me intimately, which is the gift above all gifts.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 36px;">Jesus Calling, December 1</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;"><img alt="Jesus Calling, December 1" class="img-rounded pull-right lmargin bmargin" src="https://www.midlandscbd.com/uploads/news-pictures/1100--blog-post-image-20170519111637.jpg" style="border-radius: 6px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; height: auto; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-left: 10px; max-width: 50%; position: relative; text-align: start; vertical-align: middle;" title="Jesus Calling, December 1" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">INSPIRATION -&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?event=AFF&amp;p=1179934&amp;item_no=451884" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #4167b0; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Jesus Calling</span></a></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">by Sarah Young</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">I love you with an everlasting Love, which flows out from the depth of eternity. Before you were born, I knew you. Ponder the awesome mystery of a Love that encompasses you from before birth to beyond the grave.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: justify;">Modern man has lost the perspective of eternity. To distract himself from the gaping jaws of death, he engages in ceaseless activity and amusement. The practice of being still in My Presence is almost a lost art, yet it is this very stillness that enables you to experience My eternal Love. You need the certainty of My loving Presence in order to weather the storms of life. During times of severe testing, even the best theology can fail you if it isn't accompanied by experiential knowledge of Me. The ultimate protection against sinking during life's storms is devoting time to develop your friendship with Me.</div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-44643293714402264592017-10-07T09:32:00.002-07:002017-10-07T09:32:23.078-07:00Man needs a place of holy tranquility that the breath of God pervades and where he meets the great figures of the Faith.<div align="center" style="background-color: white;"><h3><em>Taken from The Rosary of Our Lady<br />by Romano Guardini&nbsp;</em></h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">To linger in the domain of Mary is a divinely great thing. One does not ask about the utility of truly noble things, because they have their meaning within themselves. So it is of infinite meaning to draw a deep breath of this purity, to be secure in the peace of this union with God.&nbsp;</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">With this we come back to what we said in the beginning. Man needs a place of holy tranquility that the breath of God pervades and where he meets the great figures of the Faith. This place is the inaccessibility of God Himself, which only Christ opens to man.&nbsp;</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">All prayer begins by man becoming silent – recollecting his scattered thoughts, feeling remorse at his trespasses, and directing his thoughts toward God. If man does all this, this place is thrown open, not only as a domain of spiritual tranquility and mental concentration, but as something that comes from God.&nbsp;</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">We are always in need of this place, especially when the convulsions of the times make clear something that has always existed but which is sometimes hidden by outward well-being and a prevailing peace of mind: namely, the homelessness of our lives. In such times, a great courage is demanded from us: not only a readiness to dispense with more and to accomplish more than usual, but to persevere in a vacuum we do not otherwise notice. So we require more than ever this place of which we speak, not to creep into a hiding place, but as a place to find the core of things, to become calm and confident once more.&nbsp;</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">For this reason the Rosary is so important in times likes ours — assuming, of course, that all </span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wmQNOAvasUA/WdkBdy0kB2I/AAAAAAAACeE/5cHmHhpGJHovzMoFKrPmQc8uEmKki3NDACLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BRosary%2Bof%2BOur%2BLady.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="357" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wmQNOAvasUA/WdkBdy0kB2I/AAAAAAAACeE/5cHmHhpGJHovzMoFKrPmQc8uEmKki3NDACLcBGAs/s200/The%2BRosary%2Bof%2BOur%2BLady.jpg" width="142" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">slackness and exaggeration are done away with, and that it is used in its clear and original forcefulness. This is all the more important because the Rosary does not require any special preparation, and the petitioner does not need to generate thoughts of which he is not capable at the moment or at any other time. Rather, he steps into a well-ordered world, meets familiar images, and finds roads that lead him to the essential.&nbsp;<br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Rosary has the character of a sojourn. Its essence is the sheltering security of a quiet, holy world that envelops the person who is praying. This is particularly evident when we compare it with the Stations of the Cross, which have the character of a journey. The worshiper follows the Master from one station to another, and feels at the end that he has reached his goal. The Rosary is not a road, but a place, and it has no goal but a depth. To linger in it has great compensations.&nbsp;</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Into this place the worshiper may carry all his petitions. The second part of the Hail Mary is a request, and he may fill it with his fondest wishes. The Mother of our Lord is not a goddess who lives far above men in all her splendor and has no care for them. What happened to her happened for humanity’s sake. He who was her Child is our Redeemer. She is one of us, even if she met our common destiny in a way that is her very own.&nbsp;</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Christian heart has always known Mary as the essence of compassion and love, to whom men can turn with particular and unreserved confidence. This is expressed so well by the intimate name that was given her from the beginning: the name of mother. When Christian hearts begin to beat, they know that Mary is theirs because she is the mother of Christ. The same maternal mystery in her surrounds Christ, “the firstborn among many brethren,” and us. Christians have at all times carried their petitions to Mary with the conviction that they were doing right.&nbsp;</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">There is something stupendous in the profusion of human petitions that find expression in the Hail Mary: that she may intercede for us “now and at the hour of our death.” There is no naming of details. Every human need is included, and we all employ the same words to portray our misery.&nbsp;</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Only at two instants can we grasp this human need, instants that are decisive in our lives. The one is the “now,” the hour in which we have to fulfill the will of God, to choose between good and evil, and so decide the course of our eternal destiny. The other one is “the hour of our death,” which terminates our life, giving to all deeds and past happenings the character that will count for them in eternity.&nbsp;</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">To this we must add something else. To say the Rosary correctly is no easy, and I must ask the reader not to dwell on single words but to strive to find their right meaning.&nbsp;</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">The Apostle Paul speaks in his letters again and again of an ultimate mystery of Christian existence: namely, that Christ dwells “in us.” It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me,”he says in his message to the Galatians. He exhorts us to be faithful and vigilant, “until Christ is formed in you.” He sees the significance of Christian growth in “the deep knowledge of the Son of God, to perfect manhood, to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ,” and in “becoming conformed to the image of His Son, that He should be the firstborn among many brethren.&nbsp;</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">This, in the first place, is an expression of the unity of faith and the communion of grace, just as one may say of a person that a venerated model lives in him. But there is more significance to this, more from a human standpoint: namely, a communion that surpasses the joint indwelling of grace and mercy, of conviction and loyal allegiance; a participation in the reality of Christ that cannot be felt deeply enough. There is more significance also in the eyes of God; and we only rightly value the meaning of these words if we seek to understand what they mean to God.&nbsp;</span></span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.jknirp.com/rosary3.htm">The Need for the Rosary in our Times</a></span><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NXOQVqRSL5w/WdkAZ4voLgI/AAAAAAAACd4/miO7aFtt0PUFHIbk_xlDC3kYsujEJi2MgCLcBGAs/s1600/Romano_Guardini_um_1920.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="250" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NXOQVqRSL5w/WdkAZ4voLgI/AAAAAAAACd4/miO7aFtt0PUFHIbk_xlDC3kYsujEJi2MgCLcBGAs/s200/Romano_Guardini_um_1920.JPG" width="145" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 17px;">Romano Guardini (1885–1968) was ordained a priest in 1910. He was a professor at the University of Berlin until the Nazis expelled him in 1939. His sermons, books, popular classes, and his involvement in the post-war German Catholic Youth Movement won him worldwide acclaim. His works combine a keen thirst for God with a profound depth of thought and a delightful perfection of expression.</span>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-56642044816977232972017-08-05T08:48:00.000-07:002018-02-20T12:51:53.294-08:00Vocation chooses you - Jim Carrey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QFy8GY_sGYM/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QFy8GY_sGYM?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px;">At the very beginning of this story of Jim Carrey I was captivated...&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px;">"What do you do when life chooses you?"&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px;">Just pondering this question can lead to wonders that I think Carrey hoped to get his audience (us) to explore. What do you do when ... life... wait a minute, who/what is life? Life is just....you know, life isn't it? and then he continues...</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px;">"your vocation chooses you." Wow! life = vocation = life. Wow!</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">And then with my mind wondering: with our supposed free-will, do&nbsp;<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">we always allow "vocation" to choose us?</span></div><div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">Skipping to the end Carrey states, "I don't know what painting teaches me, I know it just frees me: free from the future, free from the past, free from regret, free from worry... Something inside of you is always telling a story. I believe every single thing you see and hear is talking to you...The bottom-line with all of this, whether it is performance or art or its sculpture, is love. We want to show ourselves and have that be accepted. I love being alive, and the art is the evidence of that."</div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">Captivated by this reflection by Jim Carrey, the question I ponder is; Have I allowed my vocation to choose me?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FWcE_51Xdtk/WYXoTE5q0EI/AAAAAAAACc8/cpfqpuN2NKwLunJ2s5dmkck-WzCLLgrDQCLcBGAs/s1600/Pondering%2Bemoji.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FWcE_51Xdtk/WYXoTE5q0EI/AAAAAAAACc8/cpfqpuN2NKwLunJ2s5dmkck-WzCLLgrDQCLcBGAs/s320/Pondering%2Bemoji.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"><br /></div></div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-88757319691953753502017-05-24T06:28:00.001-07:002017-05-24T06:28:15.958-07:00Witnessing "... their joy, their certainty, their completeness."<h1 class="quoteText" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gs_QbdFglj8/WSWIkgSx9zI/AAAAAAAACcM/Qx-MazGqVDY2BKDoEObNM2R4eAogYFLggCLcB/s1600/Sheldon%2BVanauken%2B%2526%2BDavy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="400" height="236" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gs_QbdFglj8/WSWIkgSx9zI/AAAAAAAACcM/Qx-MazGqVDY2BKDoEObNM2R4eAogYFLggCLcB/s320/Sheldon%2BVanauken%2B%2526%2BDavy.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians--when they are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths. But, though it is just to condemn some Christians for these things, perhaps, after all, it is not just, though very easy, to condemn Christianity itself for them. Indeed, there are impressive indications that the positive quality of joy is in Christianity--and possibly nowhere else. If that were certain, it would be proof of a very high order”</span></h1><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">―&nbsp;</span><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sheldon-Vanauken/e/B000APV9P0/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1">Sheldon Vanauken</a></b>&nbsp;from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Severe-Mercy-Sheldon-Vanauken/dp/0060688246"><span style="font-size: large;">A Severe Mercy</span></a></i></div><div><br /></div><div>I think it is worth repeating the first part of his quote again:&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><h1 class="quoteText" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness."&nbsp;</span></h1><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"...their joy, their certainty, their completeness."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This seems the goal of all and any spiritual life; joy, certainty and completeness. Areas to discern or ask ourselves, how am I doing with joy, certainty and feeling complete?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A Severe Mercy appears to be headed to the big screen, click <a href="http://www.originentertainment.com/projects/a-severe-mercy/">HERE</a>.</span></div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-22647690555087184852017-02-05T13:08:00.000-08:002017-02-05T13:27:10.951-08:00Check out what Simon says and then I add some Girardian insights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Simon Sinek touches on a number of issues and whether you are a millennial or not we should all contemplate/pray on. These issues are concerns for everyone, at all levels of culture, work, school, and family.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BLhxo3xFwQU/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BLhxo3xFwQU?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Getting our stethoscopes out, let us explore what is deeper, under the skin, drawing on our Girardian insights on one of the issues Simon touches on: the makeup of a person (re: happiness - the love of life).</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IdZM-dFh8VM/WJeBlwj1ewI/AAAAAAAACbQ/t7B2URSq89wLpuIgDvjUS80Bh1z0QHB1wCLcB/s1600/Stethoscope1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IdZM-dFh8VM/WJeBlwj1ewI/AAAAAAAACbQ/t7B2URSq89wLpuIgDvjUS80Bh1z0QHB1wCLcB/s1600/Stethoscope1.jpg" /></a><span style="background-color: white;">&nbsp;</span></div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We understand ourselves as humans and as humans we are creatures who are affect/influenced/formed by others - parents, peers, educators, environment, etc. Now this means that it is not just our common assumptions that our conscious actions or thoughts are influenced, but even our desires - our very being is formed by the other/s. In fact, looking at this from a religious/spiritual perspective; a "person" is actually a gift of the other/s and should be received as a gift. In Girardian terms, "I" am, through this body over time, being imitatively drawn into the life of the social others (culture/environment), by way of gestures, language and memory that is forming this "I." In fact this "I" (that we all are) is one of the&nbsp;symptoms of the social other/culture. This "I," that we claim as our own, is an interdividual, not like our culture mythologizes as an individual that is autonomous or self-determining.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Shortly after Simon's initial video he came out with a follow up, check it out.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: &quot;roboto&quot; , &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/o3wSgtbpHhw/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o3wSgtbpHhw?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Anthropologically/religiously/spiritually, being constituted as an interdividual, happiness, love of life comes through freedom which is actualized by the practice of embracing the other. &nbsp;So Simon is spot-on when he advocates:&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: &quot;roboto&quot; , &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;"><b><i>Let's create the Help-Others industry, not the Self-Help industry.</i></b></span>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-35581213462666516242016-10-23T06:26:00.002-07:002016-10-23T06:26:51.246-07:00Maturity in faith and knowledge comes through forgiveness and mercy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-diEzMacjsX8/WAy6hq0TWkI/AAAAAAAACaA/PDmTl28bVeICpMLnsoyKItFXnspElPWbgCLcB/s1600/forgiveness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-diEzMacjsX8/WAy6hq0TWkI/AAAAAAAACaA/PDmTl28bVeICpMLnsoyKItFXnspElPWbgCLcB/s400/forgiveness.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>This meditation came after participating at the memorial mass of St Pope John Paul II, Saturday morning October 22.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></b></div><div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #0070c0; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Maturity is a growing in faith and knowledge of, in, and by Jesus Christ so to loosen our grip on our offenses, thus allowing ourselves to being open to being forgiven, so that we can then become fully alive and agents of that same forgiveness and mercy. This is not an act an individual takes up, rather it is an act of entering into communion and unity with … everyone.</span></b><span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 14pt; padding: 0in;">Saturday Oct 22, 2016 - Memorial of St. Pope John Paul II</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">First Reading - Ephesians 4:7-16<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">Brothers and sisters: Grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, it says: He ascended on high and took prisoners captive; he gave gifts to men.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b><i>What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.</i></b><span class="apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><i>And he gave some as Apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ,<span class="apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></i><b>until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming.</b><span class="apple-converted-space"><i>&nbsp;</i></span><i>Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole Body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the Body’s growth and builds itself up in love.<o:p></o:p></i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">My meditation: <span style="color: #0070c0;">He ascended with those prisoners of sin (those bound up in and by the rule of death) and he gave them gifts of being Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, so to help us journey to fullness of life, maturing in faith and knowledge so to not be always tossed about by death and every wind or scheme that comes along.</span></span></b><span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Prayer over the Offerings<o:p></o:p></span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">Grant our supplication, we pray, O Lord that the sacrifice we present on the feast day of blessed John Paul the Second may be for our good, since through its offering you have loosed the offenses of all the world.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">My meditation: <span style="color: #0070c0;">“<i>loosed the offenses of the world</i>” – what does that mean and how do we participate in loosening – letting go of – unhooking ourselves from our offenses and how do we participate in the mission of forgiveness? We first need to be open to receiving forgiveness and reconciliation. First what is this experience of forgiveness and how do we allow ourselves to be open to the experience?&nbsp; We begin with a recognition of needing to be forgiven.</span></span></b><span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> <br /><div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: inherit, serif; font-size: 14pt; padding: 0in;">Click<span class="apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GgM3IG_fwo">here to view a video&nbsp;"Being Forgiven"</a>&nbsp;on the unsettling feeling of undergoing the experience of being forgiven which is the first step in becoming an agent of forgiveness and mercy.</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-65635178337056532492016-06-14T17:36:00.002-07:002016-06-14T17:36:34.593-07:00Introspection: Rather than finding autonomy, it is finding the other<div style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.8px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Mimetic theory contradicts the thesis of human autonomy. It tends to relativize the very possibility of introspection: going into oneself always means finding the other, the mediator, the person who orients my desires without my being aware of it.</div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 16.8px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">-Rene Girard, Battling to the End, p.10 &nbsp;</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.8px;"><b>Introspection, rather than finding autonomy, is finding the other. &nbsp;So the question can be asked, which other will you find</b></span></span><b style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.8px;">?</b></div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-56636573717487397462016-05-16T14:47:00.000-07:002016-05-16T14:55:08.855-07:00Thomas Merton - Everything Done as Prayer or it Turns to Ashes<table id="ox-a26f929534-itemcontentlist" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: initial; border: 0px none; color: black; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><tbody><tr><td style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QCnPNkuFF8c/Vzo_AnE6VBI/AAAAAAAACXc/8O6BqTGDaJ0ovTWowyb4Hh_0VxDgZJIzgCLcB/s1600/Merton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QCnPNkuFF8c/Vzo_AnE6VBI/AAAAAAAACXc/8O6BqTGDaJ0ovTWowyb4Hh_0VxDgZJIzgCLcB/s320/Merton.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #555555; line-height: 18.2px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-top: 9px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-eb61d5a8-bb90-619e-e134-f4d94249b229"><span style="color: black; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: &quot;georgia&quot; , &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif;">Everything I do, reading, study, writing, etc., simply must be done in such a way that it is prayer and preparation for prayer. That means first of all not doing it to satisfy my voracious appetite to know, to enjoy, to achieve things, to get tangible results and taste the immediate reward of my own efforts because, if that is what leads me, everything turns to ashes as soon as I touch it.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: black; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: &quot;georgia&quot; , &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 18.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: &quot;georgia&quot; , &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: black; line-height: 18.2px;">~ Thomas Merton,</span><span style="color: black; line-height: 18.2px;">&nbsp;</span><em style="color: black; line-height: 18.2px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Entering-Silence-Becoming-Writer-Journals/dp/0060654775">Entering the Silence: Becoming a Monk and a Writer </a>(The Journals of Thomas Merton Book 2)</em></div></td></tr></tbody></table>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-14046793231496984722016-05-15T10:27:00.001-07:002016-05-16T14:30:34.684-07:00Thomas Merton on Spiritual Direction and the Holy Spirit<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="line-height: 19.2px;">Come Holy Spirit.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today is Pentecost Sunday and what better day to comment on the benefits of spiritual direction.&nbsp;</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XfT3bvFlvJg/Vziwtx7Ph4I/AAAAAAAACXI/XMSp1nJ9clwl81h9i24G_7v3CZbSFj1bgCLcB/s1600/Merton%2BSD%2B%2526%2BMeditation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XfT3bvFlvJg/Vziwtx7Ph4I/AAAAAAAACXI/XMSp1nJ9clwl81h9i24G_7v3CZbSFj1bgCLcB/s1600/Merton%2BSD%2B%2526%2BMeditation.jpg" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In his little book called </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Merton-Spiritual-Direction-Meditation/dp/0814604129">Spiritual Direction and Meditation</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Thomas Merton describes what he means by spiritual direction.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He calls it “a continuous process of formation and guidance, in which Christians are led and encouraged (in all of our special vocations), so that by faithful correspondence to the graces of the Holy Spirit, we may attain to the particular end of our vocation and to union with God.” Spiritual direction is not merely ethical, social or psychological, it is going beyond. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The spiritual director focuses on the life of the whole person, not merely the life of the mind or of the heart. According to Merton, the purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of our lives, to get behind the ‘self’ that we project to the world, and to evoke our interdividuality, our interconnectedness, moving us in the direction of holiness – which is the likeness of Christ in us. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The function of the spiritual director is to create a space for the Holy Spirit to help us discern what is truly spiritual in us. Part of this function is to help us discern the movements of our desires, the spirits swirling around in us, to help us sort out which inspirations come from the spirit of evil and which from the Holy Spirit. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another part of this function is to enable us to recognize and follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in everyday life. A spiritual director creates an informal, trusting atmosphere in which a person can feel known and understood. Spiritual direction is necessarily personal and yet ever linked to the beyond. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How can we best take advantage of spiritual direction? “The first thing that genuine spiritual direction requires in order to work properly is a normal, spontaneous human relationship. We must not suppose that it is somehow ‘not supernatural’ to open ourselves easily to a director and converse with him or her in an atmosphere of pleasant and easy familiarity. This aids the work of grace: another example of grace building on nature.”</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We need to bring the director into contact with our energy, with our real desires, as best we can, fearing not that nearly every effort we make to talk about our desires is couched or masked to please rather than to reveal. Being prayerful and open in the session with the director and the Holy Spirit brings us to a relaxed, humble attitude in which we let go of ourselves, and renounce our unconscious efforts to maintain a facade. &nbsp;Merton explains that “often we ourselves do not know what we ‘really want’.” This gets to the key of what spiritual direction is about: the director is facilitating a space with the Holy Spirit to bring to light our inner spirit, “not as we are in the eyes of men, or even as we are in our own eyes, but as we are in the eyes of God.” &nbsp;</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Direction will school us in being true to ourselves and true to the grace of God.”</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In closing Merton asks how many vocations (religious and other) would be more secure if everyone could navigate the waters of life with the assistance of a good spiritual director.</span></div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-64047144403230682222016-05-01T15:20:00.000-07:002016-05-01T15:20:06.584-07:00Christian Leadership or Rather Building Up Saints<h1 class="long" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;">It is not the proper duty of Christianity to form leaders - that is, builders of the temporal - although a legion of Christian leaders is infinitely desirable. Christianity must generate saints - that is, witnesses to the eternal.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;">The efficacy of the saint is not that of the leader. The saint does not have to bring about great temporal achievements; he [or she] is one who succeeds in giving us at least a glimpse of eternity, despite the thick opacity of time. - Father Henri de Lubac, S.J.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="color: #660000;">*</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #660000;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #660000;">*pg 102;&nbsp;<i>By Little And By Little: The Selected Writings of Dorothy Day</i>&nbsp;Edited by Robert Ellsberg</span></span></div></h1>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-82758443708381183512016-03-06T16:29:00.001-08:002016-03-06T16:31:40.197-08:00Where Violence is Born - David Cayley's 2 series on René Girard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NX91BpKObI0/VtzAn1ZFhEI/AAAAAAAACV8/lqeSZHPlcR4/s1600/Ren%25C3%25A9%2BGirard%2B1990.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NX91BpKObI0/VtzAn1ZFhEI/AAAAAAAACV8/lqeSZHPlcR4/s320/Ren%25C3%25A9%2BGirard%2B1990.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: &quot;open sans&quot; , &quot;clean&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;">In Part One of David Cayley's series, The Ideas of René Girard he says: "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: &quot;open sans&quot; , &quot;clean&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;">According to French thinker&nbsp;René&nbsp;Girard, human beings copy each other's desires and are in perpetual conflict with one another over the objects of our desire. In early human communities, this conflict created a permanent threat of violence and forced our ancestors to find a way to unify themselves. They chose a victim, a scapegoat against whom the community could unite. Biblical religion, according to&nbsp;Girard, has attempted to overcome this historic plight. From the unjust murder of Abel by his brother Cain to the crucifixion of Christ, the Bible reveals the innocence of the victim. It is on this revelation that modern society unquietly rests."</span><br /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: 'Open Sans', clean, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;" /><span style="font-family: &quot;open sans&quot; , &quot;clean&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 26px;">Listen to the podcasts below:</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;open sans&quot; , &quot;clean&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 26px;"><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-scapegoat-the-ideas-of-ren%C3%A9-girard-part-1-1.3474195">Part One</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;open sans&quot; , &quot;clean&quot; , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-scapegoat-the-ideas-of-ren%C3%A9-girard-part-2-1.3474463">Part Two</a></span><br /><br /><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">Another excellent five-part radio documentary series made by the&nbsp;<strong>Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)</strong>, IDEAS producer David Cayley introduces the thought of Rene Girard on the Scapegoat. The programs feature interviews with Rene Girard, Paul Dumouchel, Jean-Michel Oughourlian and James Alison.</span></div><div style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><em style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: justify;">"Girard has demonstrated how the Gospel has definitively unveiled the Scapegoat Mechanism - the sacrificial system on which human society has been based. A system which demands the sacrifice of innocent victims. Now that it has been demystified, however, it has lost its ability to control human violence. This now presents humanity with a stark choice: either perish through increasingly uncontrollable violence or build a society based on love."</em><br /><strong style="background-color: #ffe4cd; color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;"><br /></strong><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">Program 1:</strong><span style="color: #555555; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">&nbsp;Violence in Human Societies&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">and How Religion Controls Violence Through Sacrifice.</span></span><br /><h1 class="entry-title p-name" data-content-field="title" id="yui_3_17_2_1_1457309459220_662" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: proxima-nova; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 12px 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-size: large; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.davidcayley.com/podcasts/2015/3/8/the-scapegoat-ren-girards-anthropology-of-violence-and-religion-2">The Scapegoat: René Girard's Anthropology of Violence and Religion</a></span></h1><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">Program 2:</strong><span style="color: #555555; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">&nbsp;The Breakdown of Sacrifice in the Ancient World&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">and the Emergence of a New Approach to Social Order in the Hebrew Bible</span></span></div><h1 class="entry-title p-name" data-content-field="title" id="yui_3_17_2_1_1457309670779_631" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: proxima-nova; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 12px 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-size: large; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://www.davidcayley.com/podcasts/2015/3/8/the-scapegoat-ren-girards-anthopology-of-violence-and-religion">The Scapegoat: René Girard's Anthopology of Violence and Religion Part Two</a></span></h1><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">Program 3:</strong><span style="color: #555555; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">&nbsp;The Gospel as an Intellectual Breakthrough in Human Culture&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">The Definitive Revelation of the Scapegoat Mechanism.</span></span></div><div><h1 class="entry-title p-name" data-content-field="title" id="yui_3_17_2_1_1457309751251_633" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: proxima-nova; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 12px 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.davidcayley.com/podcasts/2015/3/8/the-scapegoat-ren-girards-anthropology-of-violence-and-religion-1">The Scapegoat: René Girard's Anthropology of Violence and Religion Part Three</a></span></h1></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;"><br /></strong></span><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">Program 4:&nbsp;</strong><span style="color: #555555; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">The Innocence of the Victim:&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">The Hidden Spell of Satan in the Scapegoat Mechanism Broken</span></span></div><div><h1 class="entry-title p-name" data-content-field="title" id="yui_3_17_2_1_1457309820851_632" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: proxima-nova; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 12px 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.davidcayley.com/podcasts/2015/3/8/the-scapegoat-part-four">The Scapegoat: René Girard's Anthopology of Violence and Religion Part Four</a></span></h1></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">Program 5:</strong><span style="color: #555555; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">&nbsp;Christianity: The Invisible Foundation of the Modern World&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , &quot;helvetica&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;">A Christian Response to the Enlightenment, Nietzsche and Modern 'Political Correctness'</span></span></div><div><h1 class="entry-title p-name" data-content-field="title" id="yui_3_17_2_1_1457309885369_632" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: proxima-nova; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 12px 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.davidcayley.com/podcasts/2015/3/8/the-scapegoat-ren-girards-anthropology-of-violence-and-religion">The Scapegoat: René Girard's Anthropology of Violence and Religion Part Five</a></span></h1></div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-36328571192458654072016-03-06T14:43:00.000-08:002016-03-06T14:43:14.091-08:00Bishop Barron explains how RENÉ GIRARD shakes your world<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x9T4FcP-Yl0/Vtys6NWwfDI/AAAAAAAACVs/Ljpk1irwlSA/s1600/Ren%25C3%25A9%2BGirard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x9T4FcP-Yl0/Vtys6NWwfDI/AAAAAAAACVs/Ljpk1irwlSA/s1600/Ren%25C3%25A9%2BGirard.jpg" /></a></div>Bishop Barron has reviewed and written on René Girard numerous times and here, <a href="http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/ren-girard-church-father/4982/"><b><i>in the following</i></b></a>, he provides a strong case for how Girard's thought came to shake the world of many, including myself. View 'Bishop Barron on René Girard' video at the bottom of the article.<br /><br /><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #221f1f; font-family: 'Monotype Goudy W01'; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 17px; outline: none 0px !important;">René Girard, one of the most influential Catholic philosophers in the world, died last week at the age of 91. Born in Avignon and a member of the illustrious&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none 0px !important;">Academie Francaise,&nbsp;</i>Girard nevertheless made his academic reputation in the United States, as a professor at Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, and Stanford University.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #221f1f; font-family: 'Monotype Goudy W01'; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 17px; outline: none 0px !important;">There are some thinkers that offer intriguing ideas and proposals, and there is a tiny handful of thinkers that manage to shake your world. Girard was in this second camp. In a series of books and articles, written across several decades, he proposed a social theory of extraordinary explanatory power. Drawing inspiration from some of the greatest literary masters of the West—Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Proust among others—Girard opined that desire is both mimetic and triangular. He meant that we rarely desire objects straightforwardly; rather, we desire them because others desire them: as we imitate (<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none 0px !important;">mimesis</i>) another’s desire, we establish a triangulation between self, other, and object. If this sounds too rarefied, think of the manner in which practically all of advertising works: I come to want those gym shoes, not because of their intrinsic value, but because the hottest NBA star wants them. Now what mimetic desire leads to, almost inevitably, is conflict. If you want to see this dynamic in the concrete, watch what happens when toddler A imitates the desire of toddler B for the same toy, or when dictator A mimics the desire of dictator B for the same route of access to the sea.&nbsp;</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #221f1f; font-family: 'Monotype Goudy W01'; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 17px; outline: none 0px !important;">The tension that arises from mimetic desire is dealt with through what Girard called the scapegoating mechanism. A society, large or small, that finds itself in conflict comes together through a common act of blaming an individual or group purportedly responsible for the conflict. So for instance, a group of people in a coffee klatch will speak in an anodyne way for a time, but in relatively short order, they will commence to gossip, and they will find, customarily, a real fellow feeling in the process. What they are accomplishing, on Girard’s reading, is a discharging of the tension of their mimetic rivalry onto a third party. The same dynamic obtains among intellectuals. When I was doing my post-graduate study, I heard the decidedly Girardian remark: “the only thing that two academics can agree upon is how poor the work of a third academic is!” Hitler was one of the shrewdest manipulators of the scapegoating mechanism. He brought the deeply divided German nation of the 1930’s together precisely by assigning the Jews as a scapegoat for the country’s economic, political, and cultural woes. Watch a video of one of the Nuremberg rallies of the mid-thirties to see the Girardian theory on vivid display.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #221f1f; font-family: 'Monotype Goudy W01'; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 17px; outline: none 0px !important;">Now precisely because this mechanism produces a kind of peace, however ersatz and unstable, it has been revered by the great mythologies and religions of the world and interpreted as something that God or the gods smile upon. Perhaps the most ingenious aspect of Girard’s theorizing is his identification of this tendency. In the founding myths of most societies, we find some act of primal violence that actually establishes the order of the community, and in the rituals of those societies, we discover a repeated acting out of the original scapegoating. For a literary presentation of this ritualization of society-creating violence, look no further than Shirley Jackson’s masterpiece “The Lottery.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #221f1f; font-family: 'Monotype Goudy W01'; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 17px; outline: none 0px !important;">The main features of this theory were in place when Girard turned for the first time in a serious way to the Christian Scriptures. What he found astonished him and changed his life. He discovered that the Bible knew all about mimetic desire and scapegoating violence but it also contained something altogether new, namely, the de-sacralizing of the process that is revered in all of the myths and religions of the world. The crucifixion of Jesus is a classic instance of the old pattern. It is utterly consistent with the Girardian theory that Caiaphas, the leading religious figure of the time, could say to his colleagues, “Is it not better for you that one man should die for the people than for the whole nation to perish?” In any other religious context, this sort of rationalization would be valorized. But in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, this stunning truth is revealed: God is not on the side of the scapegoaters but rather on the side of the scapegoated victim. The true God in fact does not sanction a community created through violence; rather, he sanctions what Jesus called the Kingdom of God, a society grounded in forgiveness, love, and identification with the victim. Once Girard saw this pattern, he found it everywhere in the Gospels and in Christian literature. For a particularly clear example of the unveiling process, take a hard look at the story of the woman caught in adultery.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #221f1f; font-family: 'Monotype Goudy W01'; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 17px; outline: none 0px !important;">In the second half of the twentieth century, academics tended to characterize Christianity—if they took it seriously at all—as one more iteration of the mythic story that can be found in practically every culture. From the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none 0px !important;">Epic of Gilgamesh</em>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none 0px !important;">Star Wars</em>, the “mono-myth,” to use Joseph Campbell’s formula, is told over and again. What Girard saw was that this tired theorizing has it precisely wrong. In point of fact, Christianity is the revelation (the unveiling) of what the myths want to veil; it is the deconstruction of the mono-myth, not a reiteration of it—which is exactly why so many within academe want to domesticate and de-fang it.&nbsp;</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #221f1f; font-family: 'Monotype Goudy W01'; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 17px; outline: none 0px !important;">The recovery of Christianity as&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none 0px !important;">revelation</i>, as an unmasking of what all the other religions are saying, is&nbsp;René Girard’s permanent and unsettling contribution.</div><h1 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #221f1f; font-family: 'Avenir Next W04'; font-size: 1.6em; margin: 13px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="http://www.wordonfire.org/resources/video/bishop-barron-on-ren-girard/5028/">BISHOP BARRON ON RENÉ GIRARD</a></h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LSzF2OG2ejI/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LSzF2OG2ejI?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><div><br /></div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-44858438145046461902015-12-20T19:11:00.000-08:002015-12-22T06:38:20.509-08:00Into The Dark - A Christmas Meditation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o7h0ZNXex0Q/VndqVq0xvvI/AAAAAAAACTk/Q7eDvZQfNDw/s1600/Annunciation%2Bto%2Bthe%2BShepherds%2BGovaert%2BFlinck%2B1639.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o7h0ZNXex0Q/VndqVq0xvvI/AAAAAAAACTk/Q7eDvZQfNDw/s400/Annunciation%2Bto%2Bthe%2BShepherds%2BGovaert%2BFlinck%2B1639.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="articleTitle2" style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold;">INTO THE DARK WITH GOD</div><div class="articleSubtitle3" style="background-color: #efefef; color: #777d00; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px;">A Christmas Meditation on the Incarnation, for a Troubled World</div><div class="articleAuthor2" style="background-color: #efefef; color: #cc6600; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;">By Hans Urs von Balthasar</div><div class="articleAuthor2" style="background-color: #efefef; color: #cc6600; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And the angel said to them,<o:p></o:p></span></div><i><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you Good News of a great joy that will come to all the people: for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger" (Luke 2:10-12).</span></i><br /><i><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></i><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aXZsKFeIRME/Vnldz3duBMI/AAAAAAAACUs/b-9WOANSV_U/s1600/Picture1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aXZsKFeIRME/Vnldz3duBMI/AAAAAAAACUs/b-9WOANSV_U/s200/Picture1.png" width="189" /></a></div><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/></v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_6" o:spid="_x0000_s1026" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u3QPOQQgIs4/Vndj4X-__EI/AAAAAAAACSw/7jqSABkuyFQ/s200/Picture1.png" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u3QPOQQgIs4/Vndj4X-__EI/AAAAAAAACSw/7jqSABkuyFQ/s1600/Picture1.png" style='position:absolute;margin-left:0;margin-top:-.2pt;width:150pt;height:122.25pt; z-index:251658240;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square; mso-wrap-distance-left:9pt;mso-wrap-distance-top:0;mso-wrap-distance-right:9pt; mso-wrap-distance-bottom:0;mso-position-horizontal:absolute; mso-position-horizontal-relative:text;mso-position-vertical:absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative:text' o:button="t"> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\D\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.png" o:title="Picture1"/> <w:wrap type="square"/></v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On Christmas night the shepherds are addressed by an angel who shines upon them with the blinding glory of God, and they are very much afraid. The tremendous, unearthly radiance shows that the angel is a messenger of heaven and clothes him with an incontrovertible authority. With this authority he commands them not to be afraid but to embrace the great joy he is announcing to them. And while the angel is speaking thus to these poor frightened people, he is joined by a vast number of others, who unite in a "Gloria" praising God in heaven's heights and announcing the peace of God's goodwill to men on earth. Then, we read, "the angels went away from them into heaven." In all probability the singing was very beautiful and the shepherds were glad to listen; doubtless they were sorry when the concert was over and the performers disappeared behind heaven's curtain. Probably, however, they were secretly a little relieved when the unwonted light of divine glory and the unwonted sound of heavenly music came to an end, and they found themselves once more in their familiar earthly darkness. They probably felt like shabby beggars who had suddenly been set in a king's audience chamber among courtiers dressed in magnificent robes and were glad to slip away unnoticed and take to their heels.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But the strange thing is that the intimidating glory of the heavenly realm, which has now vanished, has left behind a human glow of joy in their souls, a light of joyous expectation, reinforcing the heavenward-pointing angel's word and causing them to set out for Bethlehem. Now they can turn their backs on the whole epiphany of the heavenly glory—for it was only a starting point, an initial spark, a stimulus leading to what was really intended; all that remains of it is the tiny seed of the word that has been implanted in their hearts and that now starts to grow in the form of expectation, curiosity and hope: "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They want to see the word that has<i>&nbsp;taken place</i>. Not the angel's word with its heavenly radiance: that has already become unimportant. They want to see the&nbsp;<i>content</i>&nbsp;of the angel's word, that is, the Child, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. They want to see the word that has "happened", the word that has taken place, the word that is not only something uttered but something done, something that can not only be heard but also seen.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MSchc8m-CJs/Vnld9XVpXxI/AAAAAAAACU0/S4XqQPt8EXA/s1600/Picture2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MSchc8m-CJs/Vnld9XVpXxI/AAAAAAAACU0/S4XqQPt8EXA/s320/Picture2.png" width="178" /></a><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thus the word that the shepherds want to see is not the angel's word. This was only the proclamation (the kerygma, as people say nowadays); it was only a pointer. The angels, with their heavenly authority, disappear: they belong to the heavenly realm; all that remains is a pointer to a word that has been&nbsp;<i>done</i>. By God, of course. Just as it is God who made it known to them through the angels.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So they set off, heaven behind them, and the earthly sign before them. But, Lord, what a sign! Not even&nbsp;<i>the&nbsp;</i>Child, but a child. Some child or other. No special child. Not a child radiating a light of glory, as the religious painters depicted, but on the contrary: a child that looks as 'inglorious as possible. Wrapped in swaddling clothes. So that it cannot move. It lies there, imprisoned, as it were, in the clothes in which it has been wrapped through the solicitude of others. There is nothing elevating about the manger in which it lies, either, nothing even remotely corresponding to the heavenly glory of the singing angels. There is practically nothing even half worth seeing; the destination of the shepherds' nightly journey is the most ordinary scene. Indeed, in its poverty it is decidedly disappointing. It is something entirely human and ordinary, something quite profane, in no way distinguished—except for the fact that this is the promised sign, and it fits.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The shepherds believed the word. The word sends them&nbsp;<i>from</i>&nbsp;heaven and&nbsp;<i>to</i>&nbsp;earth, and as they proceed along this path, from light to darkness, from the extraordinary to the ordinary, from the solitary experience of God to the realm of ordinary human intercourse, from the splendor above to the poverty below, they are given the confirmation they need: the sign fits. Only now does their fearful joy under heaven's radiance turn into a completely uninhibited, human and Christian joy. Because it fits. And why does it fit? Because the Lord, the High God, has taken the same path as they have: he has left his glory behind him and gone into the dark world, into the child's apparent insignificance, into the unfreedom of human restrictions and bonds, into the poverty of the crib. This is the Word&nbsp;<i>in action</i>, and as yet the shepherds do not know, no one knows, how far down into the darkness this Word-in-action will lead. At all events it will descend much deeper than anyone else into what is worldly, apparently insignificant and profane; into what is bound, poor and powerless; so much so that we shall not be able to follow the last stage of his path. A heavy stone will block the way, preventing the others from approaching, while, in utter night, in ultimate loneliness and forsakenness, he descends to his dead human brothers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1phH3O32OlE/VnleTjFUKgI/AAAAAAAACU8/Mz9MVj-IvWY/s1600/Picture3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1phH3O32OlE/VnleTjFUKgI/AAAAAAAACU8/Mz9MVj-IvWY/s200/Picture3.png" width="192" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is true, therefore: in order that he shall find God, the Christian is placed on the streets of the world, sent to his manacled and poor brethren, to all who suffer, hunger and thirst; to all who are naked, sick and in prison. From henceforth this is his place; he must identify with them all. This is the great joy that is proclaimed to him today, for it is the same way that God sent a Savior to us. We ourselves may be poor and in bondage too, in need of liberation; yet at the same time all of us who have been given a share in the joy of deliverance are sent to be companions of those who are poor and in bondage.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But who will step out along this road that leads from God's glory to the figure of the poor Child lying in the manger? Not the person who is taking a walk for his own pleasure. He will walk along other paths that are more likely to run in the opposite direction, paths that lead from the misery of his own existence toward some imaginary or dreamed-up attempt at a heaven, whether of a brief pleasure or of a long oblivion. The only one to journey from heaven, through the world, to the hell of the lost, is he who is aware, deep in his heart, of a mission to do so; such a one obeys a call that is stronger than his own comfort and his resistance. This is a call that has complete power and authority over my life; I submit to it because it comes from a higher plane than my entire existence. It is an appeal to my heart, demanding the investment of my total self; its hidden, magisterial radiance obliges me, willy-nilly, to submit. I may not know who it is that so takes me into his service. But one thing I do know: if l stay locked within myself, if I seek myself, I shall not find the peace that is promised to the man on whom God's favor rests. I must go. I must enter the service of the poor and imprisoned. I must lose my soul if I am to regain it, for so long as I hold onto it, I shall lose it. This implacable, silent word (which yet is so unmistakable) burns in my heart and will not leave me in peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In other lands there are millions who are starving, who work themselves to death for a derisory day's wage, heartlessly exploited like cattle. There too are the slaughtered peoples whose wars cannot end because certain interests (which are not theirs) are tied up with the continuance of their misery. And I know that all my talk about progress and mankind's liberation will be dismissed with laughter and mockery by all the realistic forecasters of mankind's next few decades. Indeed, I only need to open my eyes and ears, and I shall hear the cry of those unjustly oppressed growing louder every day, along with the clamor of those who are resolved to gain power at any price, through hatred and annihilation. These are the superpowers of darkness; in the face of them all our courage drains away, and we lose all belief in the mission that resides in our hearts, that mission that was once so bright, joyous and peace bringing; we lose all hope of really finding the poor Child wrapped in swaddling clothes. What can my pitiful mission achieve, this drop of water in the white-hot furnace? What is the point of my efforts, my dedication, my sacrifice, my pleading to God for a world that is resolved to perish?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dhkDvD_DujE/VnledARbsaI/AAAAAAAACVE/-IldLFuqAW0/s1600/Picture4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dhkDvD_DujE/VnledARbsaI/AAAAAAAACVE/-IldLFuqAW0/s320/Picture4.png" width="233" /></a></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DXW_YSBTLdY/VndoQMWGsQI/AAAAAAAACTY/kPcqrK7rMik/s1600/Picture4.png"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-no-proof: yes; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/></v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_3" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DXW_YSBTLdY/VndoQMWGsQI/AAAAAAAACTY/kPcqrK7rMik/s200/Picture4.png" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DXW_YSBTLdY/VndoQMWGsQI/AAAAAAAACTY/kPcqrK7rMik/s1600/Picture4.png" style='width:109.5pt;height:150pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square' o:button="t"> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\D\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.png" o:title="Picture4"/></v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">"Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you Good News of a great joy... This day is born the Savior", that is, he who, as Son of God and Son of the Father, has traveled (in obedience to the Father) the path that leads away from the Father and into the darkness of the world. Behind him omnipotence and freedom; before, powerlessness, bonds and obedience. Behind him the comprehensive divine vision; before him the prospect of the meaninglessness of death on the Cross between two criminals, Behind him the bliss of life with the Father; before him, grievous solidarity with all who do not know the Father, do not want to know him and deny his existence. Rejoice then, for God himself has passed this way! The Son took with him the awareness of doing the Father's will. He took with him the unceasing prayer that the Father's will would be done on the dark earth as in the brightness of heaven. He took with him his rejoicing that the Father had hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to babes, to the simple and the poor. "I am the way", and this way is "the truth" for you; along this way you will find "the life". Along "the way" that I am you will learn to lose your life in order to find it; you will learn to grow beyond yourselves and your insincerity into a truth that is greater than you are. From a worldly point of view everything may seem very dark; your dedication may seem unproductive and a failure. But do not be afraid: you are on God's path. "Let not your hearts be troubled: believe in God; believe also in me." I am walking on ahead of you and blazing the trail of Christian love for you. It leads to your most inaccessible brother, the person most forsaken by God. But it is the path of divine love itself. You are on the right path. All who deny themselves in order to carry out love's commission are on the right path.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tQ9THR4smVM/Vnds_a0iMiI/AAAAAAAACUQ/msS9axWZz1k/s1600/You-Crown-the-Year-with-Your-Goodness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tQ9THR4smVM/Vnds_a0iMiI/AAAAAAAACUQ/msS9axWZz1k/s320/You-Crown-the-Year-with-Your-Goodness.jpg" width="210" /></a><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Miracles happen along this path. Apparently insignificant miracles, noticed by hardly anyone. The very finding of a Child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger—is this not a miracle in itself? Then there is the miracle when a particular mission, hidden in a person's heart, really reaches its goal, bringing God's peace and joy where there were nothing but despair and resignation; when someone succeeds in striking a tiny light in the midst of an overpowering darkness. When joy irradiates a heart that no longer dared to believe in it. Now and again we ourselves are assured that the angel's word we are trying to obey will bring us to the place where God's Word and Son is already made man. We are assured that, in spite of all the noise and nonsense, today, December 25, is Christmas just as truly as two millennia ago. Once and for all God has started out on his journey toward us, and nothing, till the world's end, will stop him from coming to us and abiding in us.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">December 23, 2004<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable"> <tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_1" o:spid="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Foldarchive.godspy.com%2Fimages%2Fspacer.gif&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" style='width:8.25pt;height:12pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\D\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.gif" o:title="proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Foldarchive.godspy.com%2Fimages%2Fspacer"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;" valign="top"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><br /><hr align="center" noshade="" size="1" style="color: #a0a0a0;" width="100%" /><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;">HANS URS VON BALTHASAR is considered one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century. This sermon is from the collection&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ignatius.com/Products/YCY-P/you-crown-the-year-with-your-goodness.aspx">"You Crown the Year With Your Goodness," Ignatius Press, 1989.</a>&nbsp;(The German original was published in 1982).<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-66024510843083478112015-12-15T15:19:00.002-08:002015-12-15T15:19:46.240-08:00A Reflection for Christmas by James Stephen Behrens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HJ5PFZEySuk/VnCcxxLnqsI/AAAAAAAACR0/QWfPMfwND8c/s1600/Bethlehem%2Bstar%2Band%2Bmagi.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HJ5PFZEySuk/VnCcxxLnqsI/AAAAAAAACR0/QWfPMfwND8c/s320/Bethlehem%2Bstar%2Band%2Bmagi.PNG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;"><a href="http://shirtofflame.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-big-time-arrival-from-afar.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ShirtOfFlame+%28SHIRT+OF+FLAME%29"><span style="color: blue;">In her blog Heather King</span></a> shares an essay from a friend of hers,&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;">James Stephen Behrens</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;">,&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;">a former diocesan priest in NJ and for many years now a Cistercian monk at Holy Spirit Monastery in Conyers, Georgia.</span><br /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;">King tells us that James Stephen is a photographer, a writer, and a close observer: of deer, cobwebs, shadows, stars, people.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;">&nbsp; The essay is titled, "Christmas 2014" but it could just as well be called "Christmas is Forever."</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;" /><i style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;">There is a strip mall not far from the monastery.&nbsp; I was there a week or so before Christmas.&nbsp; Most of the stores are vacant and have been that way for a long time. The “For Lease” signs in the windows are faded.&nbsp; I parked the car and walked around a bit.&nbsp; I looked in a few windows and the views were all pretty much the same – gatherings of dust, empty coffee cups on the floor, dismantled shelves, scraps of paper.&nbsp; When I walked back to my car I noticed something strange.&nbsp;</i><i style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;">All the tall lampposts were decorated for Christmas.&nbsp; Each one had a variation of a Christmas theme.&nbsp; Some had big foam Santa Clauses.&nbsp; Others had silver bells and red and green ribbons, all covered with glitter that sparkled in the sunlight.The big parking lot was almost empty of cars.&nbsp; I wondered about the decorations.&nbsp; I suppose that each year they are put up on the lampposts, even if there are no shoppers, no stores, no Christmas music streaming from loudspeakers.</i><br /><i style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;"><br />I suppose that one very important dimension of Christmas thrives on fullness.&nbsp; I know that there are malls, restaurants, churches, banks and credit card companies that thrive during the Christmas Season.&nbsp; They promise the best that this Season can bring, with bows and ribbons, discounts galore, deferred payments and Christmas bonuses. But there is another dimension to Christmas that draws near to places that are empty, deserted and in need of the hope that only the meaning of Christmas can bring.&nbsp; Emptiness gnaws at us, like a hunger that we are incapable of satisfying, of filling, with our own resources.&nbsp; And yet this expectation rises in the human heart at this time of the year. Maybe a good place to ponder this dimension is an abandoned strip mall, a place off the busy and thriving places of the Christmas map, a place where the only music that can be made is a Christmas carol as it plays on the car radio or goes through one’s mind as the emptiness waits for a fullness that may be a long time in coming.<br /><br />I am listening to the radio as I am stringing these words along.&nbsp; Over one-hundred and forty children were killed in an attack on a school by the Taliban.&nbsp; It happened in the Pakistani city of&nbsp;<st1:city w:st="on">Peshawar</st1:city>.&nbsp; It is one of many tragic stories that ride the airwaves along side the carols of good cheer and wondrous gifts to come.&nbsp; It is hard for me to separate the bad news from the good.&nbsp; Seen from a place far above us, the earth must look like a beautiful place, a place where city lights twinkle back at the light of the stars and the vast oceans glisten as the tides rise and fall.&nbsp; The wounds born by its people cannot be seen.&nbsp; And nothing at all seems to be crippled by the ache of emptiness.&nbsp; But upon a closer look, the earth and its inhabitants struggle to fill the emptiness that hollows the heart and deadens the mind.<br /><br />There are lights at this time of the year.&nbsp; Lights on trees, lights on homes, lights in churches, synagogues, and in gatherings of the faithful all over the earth.&nbsp; These, too, can be seen from afar.&nbsp; And Scripture tells us that a Child was found by three Wise Men who followed the moving light of a star across a vast desert, and when it settled above a little town, they knew the Child awaited them. And they worshipped him, and brought him gifts.<br /><br />It is the Light of that Child that makes everything different, makes of all things not what they seem to be. For this Light that is Life, when brought to bear upon the darkest corners of human life, promises that there will be redemption, that the light of goodness, of God, will overcome whatever darkness we see about us. The Light will fill our emptiness and we will someday learn not to assuage our emptiness with excess, with violence, with the murder of the innocent.<br /><br />I like to think that the lights and decorations of that little strip mall are okay, even though no one comes to the place. For I like to think that our lives are kind of like that mall. We wander in the midst of a poorly decorated world, a world like a half-baked Christmas awaiting a crowd. But if you pull off the road and into the mall, and think just a bit, and maybe pray, you will better know why God came to us as one of us. He can be most clearly seen in the empty and abandoned places of life, places that we normally avoid when sales are non-existent and the frenzied crowds at the mega-malls. And in the silence of that little empty mall, his message is barely a whisper, but it is clear: Christmas is for all, the rich and the poor, the empty and half-hearted, as free gift, and it is eternal, and no darkness will overcome it. But you have to pull off the highway just a bit, and stay for a while in a place that life seems to have passed by. God is waiting there, as he waits everywhere, amidst the lonely decorations and the row of closed stores – a place that looks to be waiting for something real good to happen, when in fact, it already has, a Big Time arrival, from afar.&nbsp;</i><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;">--James Stephen Behrens,&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;">OCSO</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.48px;">,&nbsp;</span>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-1106115174039254072015-11-25T13:54:00.000-08:002015-11-25T13:54:59.182-08:00Giving thanks in all circumstances<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot;; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">The following reflection comes from Jennifer Hubbard, a contributing writer for </span><a href="http://us.magnificat.net/home" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Magnificat</i></a></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;arial&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;">I tilt my chin to the sky, allowing the sun’s warmth to reach the depths of my soul grateful for God’s light. I cherish the sounds and absorb the beauty that surrounds me grateful for God’s creation. There was a time when I thought this was the ultimate expression of gratitude, and thankfulness came easily. I could not understand how one could sing praises of gratitude when life choked and weighed heavy on one’s shoulders. And then the unthinkable happened, and all I could do was sit in the pew and absorb the words. Only then, when my world was crushed, did I really listen to the words I had prayed my whole life. When I truly heard the words, everything changed. </span></span></div><b id="docs-internal-guid-8c6bd4fa-4093-ab65-d368-30853d714f82" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;">I bow my head as the priest says, “Giving you thanks, he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples.” The magnitude of what is happening convicts me Jesus is preparing to be beaten and bruised and nailed to a cross, and still he gives thanks. In his giving thanks Jesus shows me why it is truly “our duty and our salvation”. In this moment I see it is not about for what I give thanks, but in all circumstances give thanks (1 Thes 5:18). </span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;">In everything give thanks, confident in his faithfulness and love, desiring only that his will be done. In everything give thanks, walking with certainty that the messy, scary, and lonely will serve his purpose. In everything give thanks, acting with assurance that he will make beauty from the ashes. When I am deflated, exhausted, and frail, I reach for his hand and I am carried. When I stray he redirects me. It is in these moments that I am left with a deep sense of gratitude, and sing his praises that my suffering is not in vain. I bow deeply in thanksgiving and confidence that the cross I bear makes way for his will to be done.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;arial&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;arial&quot;; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>- Jennifer Hubbard, who resides in Newtown, CT, writes this reflection entitled: Thanksgiving Day. The younger of her two children, Catherine Violet, was a victim of the Sandy River Elementary School shooting in December 2012.</i></span></div>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-90654518331242704902015-11-08T05:34:00.002-08:002015-11-08T05:34:50.857-08:00René Girard tribute from Gil Bailie<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Link here to read&nbsp;<a href="http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/4346/ren_girards_genius_and_generosity.aspx">my friend, Gil Bailie's tribute to René Girard</a>&nbsp;in it's entirety.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oN23MZR27nU/Vj9O1iZUXOI/AAAAAAAACRI/H9G6J4xSwXw/s1600/ReneGirard_2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oN23MZR27nU/Vj9O1iZUXOI/AAAAAAAACRI/H9G6J4xSwXw/s400/ReneGirard_2012.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have simply pulled out a couple rich comments from the tribute.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">"Beginning with discoveries and insights gained from the careful reading of first literature and then anthropology, Girard turned to the scriptures, only to find there an anthropological perspicacity that completely distinguished this tradition, and in light of which the continuity between the Old and New Testaments came more clearly into focus. Girard saw the mounting chorus of anti-sacrificial admonitions issued by the prophets and the sympathy for the victim found in the psalms and wisdom literature as evidence of the Bible’s religious and moral movement toward the culminating, history-altering revelation of the Cross. Those who might regard Girard’s work as the reduction of the mystery of Christian redemption to a moral repudiation of an odious example of human sinfulness are mistaken. Not only has Girard shown how profoundly and unavoidably humans are implicated in the sacrificial paradigm, but his discovery of these things was accompanied by the deepening of his Catholic faith, sacramental participation, and personal piety – indicative of both his humility and of the gravity of the anthropological conclusions to which his researches led him."</span><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-02NqFI66swk/Vj9PCtydXBI/AAAAAAAACRQ/nCHsuHV7vc4/s1600/Gil%2BBailie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-02NqFI66swk/Vj9PCtydXBI/AAAAAAAACRQ/nCHsuHV7vc4/s1600/Gil%2BBailie.jpg" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">"René understood that the unavoidably mimetic feature of our makeup makes us in some way spiritually permeable to each other and therefore in some way spiritually responsible for one another. Humble and self-effacing though he was, he conducted himself as a spiritual aristocrat. It is difficult to estimate, wrote Blessed John Henry Newman, “the moral power which a single individual, trained to practice what he teaches, may acquire in his own circle, in the course of years.” It was my privilege to be among those who not only to appreciated the importance of his intellectual contribution but who felt the subtle power of his spiritual integrity and the warmth and wisdom that emanated from it."</span>David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2925007249547402120.post-42101526577714049962015-11-05T14:12:00.001-08:002015-11-05T14:20:54.635-08:00René Girard shares his view on Peter's denial<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From friend, Erik Buys' blog, <a href="https://erikbuys.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/killing-idols-commemorating-rene-girards-spirituality/">Mimetic Margins</a>:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-197c8d25-d9bc-c5ab-ba18-4264cd122afc"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">René Girard explains how this </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">realization in forgiveness, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that people are more like 'sinners' than they would acknowledge, is at the core of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">conversion experience</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of Peter, Paul and the other disciples of Jesus.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #999999; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What enables Peter, Paul and others to become “saints” thus precisely and paradoxically is their realization that they are not “saints” (i.e. that they are far from ever being “perfect”). This truly spiritual experience, which enables people to face reality, is also the experience that guided René Girard himself throughout his life.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #999999; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">René Girard gets to the essence of what a conversion to Christ should be all about in his explanation of the denial of Peter. (click to watch):</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxWg2ogN75DuFtkMeIC2Umud-UoEegIHSgaW0QSwXJ-57e6FBJkz_EFk2UVF3VTo9YPGqxARBwJmulg-q4iDA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0' /></div><br />David Nybakkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13172189118334371454noreply@blogger.com0